Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The living wage technical group published its assessment of the living wage for 2019 this morning and its report makes for a sobering read. They have found that the living wage - the rate of pay that a full-time worker requires in order to enjoy a socially acceptable standard of living, in other words, an income floor of such a level as to allow him or her not to live the high life but, rather, a decent one - has risen to €12.30 an hour. The increase is of the magnitude of 40 cent per hour and is largely accounted for by increases in the cost of living in particular and in the cost of housing and, more especially, because of runaway rental costs. The Taoiseach will be aware that the living wage - now set at €12.30 - is considerably more than the minimum wage in this State which stands at €9.80 an hour. The gap between the two is sizeable. Workers deserve to be treated fairly and paid fairly for their work. People who are at work have every right to expect that they can have a decent standard of living. As a result, it is not acceptable that tens of thousands of workers and their families endure poverty, uncertainty, stress and substandard living conditions as a result of low pay. We are not talking about a small number of people. According to the most recent figures from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, 140,000 individuals are in receipt of the minimum wage. The majority of those 140,000 are women, and the vast majority of them work in the services sector.

There is also another big group of people who earn just above the minimum wage. Their income lies between the minimum wage and what the living wage ought to be. All of these are hardworking people. They are childcare workers, members of the Defence Forces, hospitality workers and shop assistants. They are people with whom we interact and on whom we rely on a daily basis. The situation of poverty at work in which they find themselves is simply not acceptable. We need to start moving to ensure that all workers in the public and private sectors are paid the living wage.

The State should lead from the front on this matter and that the Taoiseach should introduce the living wage for all civil and public servants. The latter has been a pre-budget proposal from Sinn Féin for many years. Last year, it would have cost just in excess of €35 million, as per costings provided to us by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. This is a minor and modest sum in the greater scheme of things, particularly when one considers the benefits that it would bring to workers and their families. Will the Taoiseach move to ensure that the State is a living wage employer in the next budget? When will the Government legislate for the living wage? When will it legislate and ensure that workers can enjoy a wage that will afford them a decent basic standard of living?

See this speech in context